Source: G-Global

Authors: Milshtein

Session: Development of clean energy sources of the Republic of Kazakhstan for EXPO-2017

Future of Solar-Electric Vehicles
Sam Mil’shtein
Advanced Electronic Technology Center
ECE Dept. UMass Lowell, MA USA

Abstract. With dwindling petroleum resources and concerns about global climate, it is imperative to find better suited modes of commute for the future. In the United States, studies have shown that 50% of the travel on automobiles is within a 25 mile radius and a significant portion of the travel is made with a single passenger in the vehicle. Engineers across the globe are designing a variety of electrical powered vehicles. Although most of the designs are using electrical motors, gearbox and massive batteries our design is a significant advancement towards a perfect Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs) with high ratio of electric/solar power to total weigh of the vehicle (Watt/kg). The design of four-wheel drive compact car with hub motors in every wheel made possible after successful design and testing of a rare wheel quad-bike carrying four people. A lightweight aluminum frame and high efficiency motors allows our car to consume less than 100Wh per mile, while conventional electric cars (i.e. Nissan “Leaf” ) consume over 300Wh per mile. In addition, the 450W solar panel will provide over 4.5 miles of charge per sunny hour, whereas a Nissan “Leaf” consumes the same amount of energy to travel less than one mile

1. Motivation

Our innovation addresses two major problems which human society faces. These problems are created by transportation structure and hardware we use moving from home to our offices, doing shopping, participating in recreational activities. The car is recognized to be the major vehicle for transportation. One of the significant problems is impact our cars on human health resulted in intensive emission of CO2. Our solar/electric car is designed to be the transportation vehicle in heavily populated cities thus reducing the amount of lethal at some levels CO2.

On the streets of the big city such as Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and others during rush hours the stream of cars moves with extremely low speed, namely 5-10 miles/hour. At that speed average car emits 800g/mi of Co2. The situation doesn’t get much better at the speed of 30mi/h. the emission of CO2 drops to 200g/mi. Contamination created by cars does impact pedestrians in the street, making people feel tired, exhausted and most impacting elderly and kids, and people with respiratory problems.

We do not pretend to say that medical factor called pH reaches catastrophic level of 7 and which would reflects high level of CO2 presence in human blood is observed in the street. This extreme condition would imply that people are dying one after another in the street of congested city. However scientists of Medical School of John Hopkins University discovered that children living in populated cities have 13.5% more of yearly asthma compared to average number of asthma in given age for kid living elsewhere. We submit that poisoning effects of CO2 should be removed from the streets in the name of health of our kids and elderly.

The second problem is related to excessive consumption of gasoline and other fuels by slow-moving cars. It might look as electric vehicles are not consuming liquid fuels. Unfortunately the truth is somewhat hidden by the fact that electric company uses fuel to provide charging for electric vehicle.

2. Electric car markets in US and in Kazakhstan

In the last 15 years we are witnessing progress of different technological solutions attempting to resolve at least partially the two problems mentioned above. For example in US (see Fig.1) at the beginning we believed that Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) are the solution, then HEVs with plugging into grid and now electric vehicles (EV). However even electric cars during hours of charging at night are effectively consuming about 12 gallons of fuel. Fig. 1 present’s dynamics of electric cars markets Electric car production in the US is projected to be 2,000,000 units in 2015, (30% of the world production). The market value of electric cars in US

Fig. 1. Market values of electrical cars

is projected to increase from $26 billion in 2009 to $46.2 billion in 2015. That assumes average cost of the EV to be about $16,000.

Assessment of market of cars produced in Kazakhstan, such as KIA, Chevrolet, Skoda plus import of cars from Russia, South Korea, Great Britain and others shows less than 0.1% of EV sold. Distinctive factor of Kazakhstan automotive market is high price for all cars.

3. Preliminary design of a “Solar-Taxi”

Advanced Electronic Technology Center of UMass has designed in 1997 the first solar/electric trike, advocating for new planning of transportation in 21st century [1], and smaller machines driven by solar energy [2-3] At that time the low cost of barrel of oil was in the range of $17 and the price of 100W solar panel was in the range of $1,000. It is the competition of these two prices delayed the progress of solar/electric vehicles. Much later the competition of these prices was not in favor of solar energy [4-5]. Nowadays the solar/electric vehicles development targets wide range of products, from recreational trike to transpiration vehicle at hospitals and resorts (between buildings) to gulf carts, to solar/electric cars. Fig. 2 presents such solar/electric trike build in 2013 with 750W hub motor in the rear wheel. The vehicle carries two passengers and can carry total load of 280kg.

To the contrary of existing status of electric car technology, our invention describes a vehicle with electrical motors built into the rear wheels. During summer months of June – July 2014 the first prototype of “Solar Taxi” (see Fig. 3) was designed, fabricated and tested by students of AETC. This Solar Powered “taxi” with hub electrical motors Built-in to the rear wheels is capable to carry Four Passengers Fig. 3 present a general view of the first solar powered “taxi”,

Fig. 2. Solar Electric Tricycle used for the transportation of disabled people.

which can carry over 650kg of load, i.e. four passengers and few suitcases. To make the vehicle lighter the entire frame was assembled from PVC tubes and only the lower frame was enforced by mental tubing inserted into PVC tubes. Although the first prototype demonstrated remarkable rigidity and was running 30mi/h with four passengers on board, the testing of the first prototype revealed number of design drawbacks which were fixed before the “taxi” participated in completion. The major changes were covered in design of steering column. This section clearly demonstrates the feasibility of our “Solar Taxi” concept as a transportation system and ensured next step of R&D.

Fig. 3.Solar Electric ‘Taxi’ used for short commutes.

4. Design of four wheel drive solar/electric car.

The Fig.4 presents the Solar Electric Car (CEV) in its construction state. It is approximately 5.9 ft. tall (bottom of wheel to top of roof), 8.9 ft. long (front edge of front wheel to back edge of back wheel), and 4.7 ft. wide (nut to nut). The total weight is less than 550 pounds and can carry a maximum (dynamic) load of 1,500 pounds plus four passengers. The frame can hold a maximum (static) load of about 3,000 pounds without permanent damage. The four hub motors allow for a maximum power of 6 kilowatts (6,000W). Full charge allows 2 hours ride with 40m/h speed. The four 450 w (total of 1800 w) solar panels charge the lithium ion batteries as it is running, what

Fig. 4. Solar Electric Car currently under construction.

allows for extra 4 -5 miles every hour of charging run-time. The option of the charging from the grid is available, but is not necessary. Dew to novel (proprietary technology of materials and electronic control) the car is very ergonomic and provides the power to weight ratio of about 10:1 (more exact is 120:11). This ratio is three times better than in any electric car available in mass production (for example, “Leaf” of Nisan). We build and tested three different solar/electric vehicles targeting different applications. On our design desks is solar/electric car with 10,000 watt power.

The specific elements of the solar car of a size comparable to Toyota are:

a) The hub motors were built in the rear wheels and doesn’t hang at any place from the frame.

b) There are no additional gears or chains.

c) Unlike a tricycle, or even first model of solar taxi this is more stable transportation system

d) Being a stable transportation system and driven by four hub motors of about 1,500 Watt (possible replacement by 2000W motor); the car is capable to carry additional load of 450kg.

e) Selected small battery which allows the car to move at a speed of 40-45 mph and the battery will work without recharging for 2 hours

4. Solar “taxi” versus EVs

In the United States, studies have shown that 50% of the travel on automobiles is within a 25 mile radius and a significant portion of the travel is made with a single passenger in the vehicle. Along with economic considerations, the health of residents of big and small cities is of our prim concern. One of the big advantages of our design is low ratio of power/weight of the vehicle. The car we design is expected to be used in city lines. Current speed 40 – 45mi/h of our solar electric vehicle will allow a resident of the city to get to his office on average of 15-20 minutes. Later on improvements of maximum speed of our vehicle will make it suitable for movements along highways. Our solar/electric car frame will be about 1m90cm -2m.5sm long, and 1m22cm wide. This means the actual vehicle will be about 2.5m long with the crumple zones. Our car will weigh around 180kg. If we get 4 x 1,500W motors, then we will have about 33W/kg. The Tesla electric car “Model S” weighs 2,112kg. Horsepower is estimated to be between 200 and 300, i.e. 149 – 224KW. That yield 106W/kg. The Nissan electric car “Leaf “has 107 HP i.e. 80KW and weighs 1,470kg. That leads 54W/kg

The body of our car will be designed from aluminum or from ductile plastics material. The frame can hold a maximum (static) load of about 3000 pounds without permanent damage. The four hub motors allow for a maximum power of 6 kilowatts (6000 w). Full charge allows 2 hours ride with 40m/h speed. The four 450 w (total of 1800 w) solar panels charge the lithium ion batteries as it is running which allows for extra 4 -5 miles every hour of charging run-time. The option of the charging from the grid is available, but is not necessary.

5. Conclusions

We strongly believe that our invention will improve significantly the healthy environment of every human being in populated centers such as big and small cities and even in villages. Green energy being our slogan will convert the overall transportation into a new, economic way of moving around.

Dew to novel (proprietary technology of materials and electronic control) the car is very ergonomic and provides the power to weight ratio of about 10:1 (more exact is 120:11). This ratio is three times better than in any electric car available in mass production (for example, “Leaf” of Nisan). We build and tested three different solar/electric vehicles targeting different applications. On our design desks is solar/electric car with 10,000 watt power. The limitations of storage technology do impact the final design of solar/electric cars. We continue to work on design of more efficient solar cells, special solar energy concentrators and would appreciate as everyone working in this field the new promising results in development of batteries. Finally we tend to believe that solar/electric cars designed by our group will cost not more than $7,000 - 8,000 in mass - production, so low income people in Kazakhstan and in USA will benefit from this clean energy development.

6. Acknowledgement The author would like to thank students, from Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Mechanical Engineering Dept., Computer Science Dept., College of Management, who joint Advanced Electronic Technology Center (AETC) of UMass for this project. The skills, contribution and work of Kenny Sanders, David Jenkins, Charles Reid, Alex Gribov, Christopher Leger, Anass Dahany, Jared Mrvos, Mukhammaddin Zinaddinov, Oliver Kayego , Richard Asirifi, Chukwuma Azubuine are highly appreciated.

References:
1. J. Wojtowicz, B. Teynor, R. Kaufman, S. Mil’shtein “Planning Cost Effective Transportation for the 21st Century” Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation, 1997.
2. S. Mil’shtein, W. Teynor, T. Deloge, B. Paquin, Y. Tran, R. Snoonian. “Clean Cut Students Shine with Solar Mover” “Lowell Sun” August 1, 1997
3. S. Mil’shtein, W. Teynor, T. Deloge, B. Paquin, Y. Tran, R. Snoonian. “Solar-Electric Powered Lawnmower with Electronic Minimization of Energy.” Pat. # 60,185,082, (2000).
4. S. Mil’shtein, W. Teynor and R. Kaufman, “Bicycle Exclusively Powered by Solar Energy with Option of Linear Pedaling and Battery Assistance.” US Patent application, (2000).

5. S. Mil’shtein, B. Srinivasan, “Solar-Electric Commuting Trike with Manual Pealing”, Intern. Conf.on Clean Technology, CTSI-08, ISBN 978-4200-8502-0, p. 124-127, (2008).

Source: G-Global

Авторы: Karlygash Zhunusova

Сессия: Sustainable development and “green economy” in the Republic of Kazakhstan: Condition and Prospects

Категория: Green economy

K. Zhunusova
Eurasian National University
Astana, Kazakhstan
karlygash.junusova@gmail.com

Prospects for “green” energy in the Republic of Kazakhstan and its development in the global economy.

One of the most important industries of the Republic of Kazakhstan is the electrical energy, all sectors of the economy depends on it. Its importance has increased in the era of scientific and technological revolution with the development of the electronics industry and the complex of industrial automation.

Electric power is a key element of life. Without energy economy is dead, and the life of the country is impossible. Even a change in prices for certain energy leads to unexpected consequences in the economy. Thus, the energy crisis of 1985, when oil-producing countries (OPEC) raised oil prices, has led to the bemusement of the world economy. Energy supply is a very important problem, which is interesting for whole world. So the issue of renewable energy sources rises on the international agenda many times.

Despite the fact that the international community is aware of the need to use renewable energy sources, alternative energy in the market depends on economic efficiency, profitability of its development. Of course, an important advantage of alternative energy is free using of renewable resources. But today even energy companies consider a using of renewable energy is perspective, they don’t see this sector attractive in price: the high costs and therefore high prime cost of electricity, the unreliability (e.g., wind energy). These factors affect the passivity of venture capital investors.

Overall, the global trends in energy are that investments in renewable energy, with the support of state aids are becoming more attractive. For example, March 4, 2013 Ernst & Young released a forecast about investment in renewable energy in 2013. Company expected the growth of investments in this sector worldwide. There are China leading in the ranking of investment attractiveness of alternative energy projects (All Renewable Index) on the results of 2012, the second place went to Germany, where the authorities intend to reduce the “green” tariff, and the third place was taken by the United States, with a preferential tax policies in relation to renewable energy facilities [1].

According to research of Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), the volume of global investment in renewable energy in 2012 was $ 268.7 billion, which is 11% lower than in 2011 - $ 302.3 billion. China is the clear leader with increase compared to the year 2011 by 20% - $ 67.7 billion, while U.S. investment in this sector totaled $ 44.2 billion [2].

There are $ 142 billion for solar energy of total $268.7 billion investment and $ 78.3 billion - for wind energy. Investments decreased in projects that use biomass or waste as fuel by 27%. This means that investors are focusing on large-scale projects in wind and solar energy.

The reduction is 11% of investments in renewable energy in general, in our opinion, can be explained by the reduction of government support of alternative energy: EU Energy Commissioner has recommended that Germany should set quotas or limits on the support of renewable sources, and Spain introduced the energy tax to offset the cost of promotion of alternative energy. Even in Japan, despite the interest in renewable energy after the abandonment of nuclear energy, the special charges in April decreased by 10% [3].

Despite the decline in investment in the green economy, 31 100 megawatts of photovoltaic power systems was put into operation the worldwide in 2012, which was the highest result in the history of the solar industry and has led to the fact that the annual global potential of solar energy has become more than 100 000 megawatts. The world solar power is enough to satisfy the everyday needs of nearly 70 million people on an average European level of consumption now.

As the production of solar panels has become increasingly concentrated only in China, the number of users of this technology is growing rapidly at that time.

China, where solar systems have recently been too expensive for widespread use, may soon become a world leader in the production of electricity from solar energy. China each year at least had doubled the amount of installed solar equipment across the country since 2006. China was ranked third in the world with 8,300 MW of total power produced by the solar energy after starting the 5000 megawatts of capacity in 2012. The Chinese government officially adopted a national plan to achieve the capacity to 35,000 MW by 2015 in July 2013 [4].

Global trends in the field of alternative energy are such that every country willing to take a strong position in geo-political and economic development of the world, must pay attention to green energy. In India, a country with 1.2 billion people, where approximately 290 million people still don’t have an access to electricity, 1,700 megawatts of solar power capacity was installed in May 2013, 80% of which falls on the sunny north - western states Gujarat and Rajasthan. Consultancy in the field of solar energy ‘Bridge to India’ guesses that this number will grow to 12,800 MW by 2016. India’s National Solar Mission aims to produce 22,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022, 2,000 MW of which will be individually installed on the system.

Switching to solar energy is becoming more attractive because of frequent power outages and rising prices for electricity coming from the grid companies, and it is important fact that solar energy has become cheaper than using individual diesel electric generator [4].

Despite the rise of Asian expansion in the field of photovoltaic installations (China, India and Japan), it will be many years before they will be able to press the European Union to place a regional leader. In the EU produces 68% of photovoltaic power in the world. European countries annually introduced hundreds and thousands megawatts of solar power; leaders are countries such as Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Greece and the United Kingdom.

Germany can rightly be called the solar capital of the world, in this country produced about 1/3 of the solar energy in the world. Germany has built more than 7,000 megawatts of solar power and reached a common result in 32,000 megawatts last year. Solar energy produced by Germany in 2012 would be enough to supply more than 8 million homes.

The main economic and political mechanism allowed Germany and Italy to accumulate such amount of solar energy in the world, is a “green tariff” that guarantees producers of renewable energy stable purchase prices for electricity supplied to the grid. When the market of solar energy will become more mature, similar benefits will gradually disappear. But it’s more than 70 countries across the world used one or another form of subsidies for producers of green energy now.

Government uses the leverage of direct state regulation to support alternative energy in the U.S: currently, 29 states introduced laws requiring energy supply companies to have a particular percentage of renewable energy in their produced energy portfolio (Renewable Portfolio Standard or “green certificates”). For example, companies providing public services should produce at least 1/3 of energy from renewable sources in California, by 2020.

Thus, we can identify several forms of public support “green” energy in a world experience: investments (outstanding representative - China), the indirect legal regulation - the “green tariff” (Germany) and the direct administrative intervention - “green certificates” (U.S.). What mechanism from international practices can be implemented in the Republic of Kazakhstan?

The pace of economic growth and diversification of the economy have a significant pressure on the energy sector of the country. National industry is energy-intensive and has considerable potential for energy savings. Along with the implementation of measures to improve energy efficiency we need to increase energy production to fulfill domestic needs, especially in energy-deficient western and southern regions.

Traditionally, thermoelectric power stations generate the largest amount of electricity in Kazakhstan - more than 87%. Hydroelectric power plants produce about 12% of electrical energy; while the share of alternative energy sources in total energy consumption is less than 1% (see Diagram 1).

Diagram 1. Electricity generation in the context of energy sources in 2012. [5]

One way to get a cheap, clean energy is the development of nuclear power. Nuclear power systems allow optimal and balanced using of the available fuel and mineral resources. Currently, nuclear power in Kazakhstan is not in use, despite the fact that the country’s uranium reserves are estimated at 469,000 tons.

However, if count potential dangerous of nuclear energy and the need to solve environmental issues, one of the priority directions of development of electric power industry will be using renewable energy sources (hydro, wind and solar energy), untapped potential in Kazakhstan of which is substantial: gross (theoretical) potential – 170×10 9 kWh/year; technology (possible to use) potential – 62×10 9 kWh/year; economic potential - 27-30×10 9 kWh/year [5-6].

The strategic goal of Kazakhstan in 2015 is to increase the share of alternative energy sources to 1.5% in total energy consumption, and by 2020 - up to 3%.

The most perspective alternative energy source is wind power in Kazakhstan, due to climatic, economic and environmental conditions.

Kazakhstan has significant potential for development the wind energy. About half of the territory of Kazakhstan has a mean annual wind speed is 4-5 m/s, and the most windy places are located in the central and northern Kazakhstan, in the south and south-east regions.

The economic potential of wind energy will be determined by the ratio of the cost of electricity from wind power stations and cost of traditional energy sources, taking into account transport costs, as well as taking into account the environmental effects of the reduction of pollution by replacing coal-fired power plants [7].

Transmission of electricity over long distances results in a significant loss of electricity, including due to aging infrastructure. Their value exceeds 20% in average all over Kazakhstan. The total length of the power networks in Kazakhstan is 98 417.225 km. [7].

To reduce the energy deficit in different regions we need to increase the supply of electricity that will lead for significant investment in the infrastructure of electrical networks, or use local alternative energy sources.

Development of wind energy realizes with real financial and technical support from the Government in Kazakhstan. The program for the development of electricity for 2010-2014, developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade noted that the main obstacle to the development of wind energy is high relative capital costs of construction and as a consequence, high power tariff. However, the difference between the price of electricity from traditional sources and wind power will be reduced under conditions of constant growth in energy prices, investment in upgrading and updating of generating capacity [8].

The country has 29 working renewable energy projects for today, and their total installed capacity is 118.8 MW and the generation of electricity for 2012 - 450.4 million kWh. 6 projects are in the implementation phase. [8]

We think that the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of alternative energy can be to learn from the United States for implementation of “green certificates”, not only used now mechanism of public-private partnerships, as due to “locality” new renewable capacities using the “green tariff” will bring higher costs of renewable energy on the shoulders of one group of consumers, while “green” standard redistribute them among all consumers.

Thus, the focus on the introduction of renewable energy sources from the state and business, governmental support for innovation, significant energy potential of Kazakhstan and the PPP mechanism provide sufficient conditions for the development of alternative energy.

However, it should be noted that renewable energy will not soon displace the traditional sources of energy such as coal, oil and gas, as this industry is capital-intensive and less profitable, and the return comes after a long period of time. The mentioned facts incline us to believe that an effective mechanism for the development of alternative energy is not only a mechanism of public-private partnerships, but also the direct administrative control (for example, “green” certifications).

The sector of alternative energy will be able to take a strong position in the energy balance of Kazakhstan only with a comprehensive public support and creating economic incentives for investors.

Bibliography

1. “Alternative Energy” - the news portal. Analysts predict the growth of investment in renewable energy [electronic resource]. Mode of access: http://pronedra.ru/alternative/2013/03/04/investicii-v-alternativnuyu-energetiku/
2. The research company Bloomberg New Energy Finance. «Global Renewable Energy Market Outlook»: Report. Pages 1-4
3. “MangistauOil.” Electronic resource. The attractiveness of investment in renewable energy is falling because of shale gas. Mode of access: http://mangistauneft.kz/index/2644-privlekatelnost-investiczij-v-alternativnuyu-energetiku-padaet-iz-za-slanczevogo-gaza.html
4. AEnergy.ru - electronic resource. World production of solar energy in 2012 reached the level of 100,000 megawatts. Mode of access: http://aenergy.ru/4128
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6. The state program of forced industrial innovative development of Kazakhstan for 2010-2014.
7. Prospects for wind energy development in Kazakhstan. Project of United Nations Development Programme and the Government of Kazakhstan “Kazakhstan-Wind Power Market Development Initiative” / Doroshin GA. - Almaty, 2006, 15 p.
8. Marketing review of alternative energy industry. National Centre for Scientific and Technical Information